The secret design and movement of slithering snakes

From Science Nation, mathematician and mechanical engineer David Hu studies the design and movement of slithering snakes:

Snakes certainly make it look easy when they slither forward, leaving perfect S-curve tracks behind them, but scientists have long been puzzled by the mechanics of their locomotion. Now, after a series of experiments and some computer modeling, David Hu has cracked the case. With funding from the National Science Foundation, he is using math to determine how snakes slither and it turns out they move in a very different way than scientists have long thought.

Watch more videos about how snakes move.